In the optical, the emphasis of the major multi-wavelength NGC 5548 reverberation mapping campaigns has been on H\(\)  [1]}, [2]}, [3]}. Nevertheless, many H\(\)  flux measurements are also available ([4]}). The average H\(\) /H\(\)  ratio is 3.70 for the 1988-1989 International AGN Watch campaign. For an intrinsic ratio of 2.8 this gives \(E(H\alpha -H\beta ) = 0.30\)  during the campaign. If we adopt an uncertainty in the intrinsic ratio of \(\pm 0.1\) , the error in \(E(H\alpha -H\beta )\)  due to this is \(\pm 0.04\) . This does not include probable systematic errors in the measurement of the line ratio.
